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The top 1 percent of families in the United States took home an average of 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent in 2015. Find out what it takes to be in the top 1 percent in every state, county, and metro area. Read the report

The number of American workers represented by a labor union ticked down last year, extending a decades-long trend.
New data on union membership from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday showed 16.38 million unionized workers in 2018, down from 16.44 million in 2017.

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Affected workers who work year-round will see their annual pay go up between $90 and $1,300, on average, depending on the size of the change in their state, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In New York City, for example, the minimum wage increased to $15 for all businesses with more than 10 employees. And employers like Walmart and Amazon have also raised minimum wages for their workers.

Minimum wage workers in Ohio will see their paychecks go up this year, along with workers in 19 other states and two dozen cities and counties. That’s according to a new analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which tracks minimum wage changes across the country.

California and Washington are also raising theirs to $12. The wage hikes will increase pay for 5.3 million workers across the country, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The increases range from a 5-cent inflation adjustment in Alaska to a $2 per hour increase in New York City. The institute said the increases will boost wages for affected workers by about $5.4 billion.

Alaska is among 29 states with minimum wages above $7.25, the highest being Washington state at $12, and in July, Washington, D.C., will pay workers at least $14 per hour, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.

Vigdor insists that changes in hiring practices were mostly a response to the minimum-wage increases, not to the economy, since changes clearly took place just as mandated raises kicked in. But not everyone is convinced. “Workers who were working very low hours experienced a small reduction in their hours, but it was fully offset by hourly wage increases,” according to the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-backed think tank, “leaving these workers with the same take-home pay from fewer hours of work.”

Despite possibility of last-minute spending, 40 percent of Americans are unable to cover a $400 emergency expense, while wages remain close to stagnant for most people, despite gains for top earners. New analysis from the Economic Policy Institute shows that labor income for the bottom 90 percent has shrunk by more than 10 percent since 1979—translating to about $10,800 of lost pay per household. With little sign of bipartisan cooperation on pro-worker policies, a tight labor market is the primary force that most workers can expect to reverse this trend in the coming year.

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EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.